Expedia Swaps Architect for New Seattle Headquarters

With final approval from the City of Seattle for its Major Phased Development application, Expedia has enlisted the help from a new architect to redesign the campus and bring those plans to life.

Expedia was previously working with Bohlin Cywinski Jackson (BCJ), Studios Architecture and PWP Landscape Architecture for its new headquarters in Seattle’s Interbay neighborhood, but the company announced June 14th that it has swapped a number of team members for new ones. In a blog post on the company’s website dedicated to tracking progress on the new campus, Expedia said it is now working with ZGF Architects, and the plans for the campus will be revamped.

While Expedia released details plans to the City of Seattle about its design, under a new architect, the company said it is still working through what the new design will look like.

Outside of ZGF Architects, Expedia has enlisted help from Surfacedesign, Inc. to serve as the landscape architect on the project. GLY will serve as the general contractor and Stegmeier Consulting Group will work as the change management team. Unico has joined the team to serve as building management, Seneca Group as development manager and Paladino as the sustainability consultant.

“Last year Expedia announced that we were taking a slightly altered approach to the design of our new campus. The goal with this pivoted approach is to allow us to take better advantage of the existing buildings first, while allowing full flexibility in the future to build out additional space,” according to an Expedia blog post. Expedia said that decision is on par with its Test & Learn philosophy, where the travel company evaluates projects continually to make sure it pencils for stakeholders.

When Expedia received final approval from the city for its Major Phased Development, it entitled the land for 15 years and will allow for Expedia to build in phases. Ultimately, the company will have the option to build up to 1.9 million square feet of total space during that time.

“Over the course of the next 2.5 years there will be numerous major milestones – some of the upcoming ones include the first in a series of construction permits and the updated design concept,” read the post.

ZGF has been active in the region; the Portland-based architects have worked on a number of high-scale projects in the Puget Sound region including some company headquarters. The group has worked on Microsoft’s buildings in Redmond, Stadium Place, a $115 million, 675,000 square foot residential project overlooking Seattle’s CenturyLink Field, Nintendo of America’s corporate headquarters in Redmond and Vulcan’s Block 44 Westlake & Mercer, a 400,000 square foot office project in Seattle. The firm has also worked on higher education buildings, hospitality, healthcare, interiors, research, sports and urban design projects.